Friday, September 17, 2010

Live Blogging Friday TV From New Hampshire (ESPN2 And SPEED)

Here we go with a day of practice and qualifying from the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The week is a strange one, with the Chase drivers doing lots of public appearances and the weather in New Hampshire refusing to cooperate.

Rainy and cold was the forecast for Friday as the TV coverage started at 11:30AM ET on ESPN2. The complete TV schedule is on the left side of this page.

ESPN has the "A Team" on these races of Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Reid has been challenged to handle practice and qualifying coverage for the Sprint Cup Series in his first season in the play-by-play role. NASCAR is a different animal than the NHRA and IndyCar, which is where Reid has been stationed for ESPN these past few seasons.

At SPEED the very familiar Camping World Truck Series TV team is back. Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip are joined by Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander on pit road. This small crew gets a lot accomplished and their ties to the truck series run deep.

The day ends with Nicole Briscoe hosting NASCAR Now from ESPN2's Bristol, CT studios. Then, another episode of Riding Shotgun with Kyle Busch airs. The reactions to this show have ranged from very positive to completely negative. Busch's fiancee certainly steals the spotlight.

Finally, Trackside on SPEED comes along with a rare appearance by a truck series driver. Todd Bodine joins Greg Biffle on the guest list. Bodine takes no prisoners and his disgust with the antics of Kyle Busch in several races this season have been well documented. It should be interesting to see if Bodine lets it fly on this topic or if NASCAR has stepped in to help him "craft" his message.

This topic will serve to host your comment on the Friday NASCAR TV coverage. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

If Todd Bodine tones down his earlier comments about KB, I'm sure it wouldn't have been NASCAR to tell him to. That's exactly the kind of "boys have at it" they want to see. It would more likely be a sponsor, like Toyota, which they both have in common, who would object to the mud-slinging.

I've got the tv on in the background as I work and I have to admit I keep hearing "top seed"?? Sheesh. What is that? Hay,wheat or rye? I guess that means the most favored driver? But what an odd and very stange way to express it. I remember that term from last year and don't understand why they used it then, or now. Something to do with college football I think - but I don't watch college football so the term goes right past this fan and means nothing but wasted airtime to me.

What a silly term top seed is for racing. But it seems Nascar is going to push it again this year. And I say Nascar specifically and not ESPN. Because if Nascar does not have control over their very own product/broadcast their idiots of the largest degree there is in the business community.

I came in, turned on the TV andtried 9 times to see the qualifyingtimes. Each time the idiots went to full screen before the ticker finished, usually about 20th. I turned it off and came to Jayski to get the info.I'm sick of all babble and no information. ESPN is worthless!

JohnP--I'm assuming you're not being sarcastic, but seeding is used in many sports and many activities; I don't really have an issue with them using it here. Ordinarily it's used in sports with multiple rounds (football, tennis) where organizers use it to fill out a bracket, unlike the Chase, but it's enough of a recognized sports term to not be out of place. However, it once again tries to make racing a stick & ball sport, which it's not.

Knowing how hard it is to get one driver to come out of his coach, all the way to the stage, on a Friday night, after such a LONG HARD DAY at the track...did you all think all 12 drivers would be coming to the stage? I just remember hearing they would HEAR from all 12 drivers...Im certain they did that right?

I haven't had a chance to check TDP but the truck broadcast seems to be dedicating their telecast to about 85% of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch there's got to be other challenges on the track and we aren't seeing it. I don't particularly like this race today.